Analysis & Opinion

BERLIN (Reuters) - The world's second-largest cellphone maker, Samsung Electronics (005930.KS), has decided to use Google's (GOOG.O) Android as a key software platform for its smartphones alongside with its own new bada software, a company executive said.

"We are Prioritizing our Android platform. Android is very open and flexible, and there is a consumer demand for it," YH Lee, head of marketing at Samsung Mobile, told Reuters in an interview on sidelines of the IFA consumer electronics fair.

Android is also powering Samsung's first hit smartphone model, Galaxy S, which sold more than one million units in the United States alone in its first month of sales.

Google's Android has stormed the cellphone industry over the last year, overtaking Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Apple (AAPL.O) to become the third-largest software platform after Nokia's (NOK1V.HE) Symbian and Research in Motion RIMM.O RIM.TO.

Samsung unveiled on Thursday at the trade fair its iPad rival, Galaxy Tab, which runs on latest Android software, and the Wave 723 phone, the second model to run on its own bada software.

Samsung unveiled its own software platform late last year -- aiming to use it to make cheaper smartphones and attract a wider user base -- and introduced its first bada model this year.

YH Lee said the company has prepared a lineup of bada models to be launched in coming quarters.

Samsung will introduce a smartphone running Microsoft's new Windows version later this year.

"There is still some professional, specialized demand there," she said.

Samsung has not introduced new Symbian phones this year and YH Lee said even though the company was ready to introduce further Symbian models if consumers demand them, it had none planned.